Chapter 1 - The Lock Clicked Before the Bat Moved
Twenty minutes after our honeymoon cruise left Port Canaveral, my husband locked the cabin door and pulled an aluminum baseball bat from his suitcase.
The click of the lock frightened me more than the bat did.
At first.
David Davis had spent our entire wedding weekend behaving like the man I thought I had married—attentive, funny, almost embarrassingly affectionate.
He carried my luggage.
Remembered how I liked my coffee.
Held my hand through dinner.
Then Florida disappeared behind the horizon, and whatever performance he had maintained for three years ended.
He wrapped one hand around the bat.
“My father gave me this before the wedding.”
I stared.
“For what?”
David closed the curtains.
“Dad always says if you let a strong woman think marriage is equal, you spend the rest of your life asking permission.”
My wedding ring suddenly felt too tight.
Then he smiled.
“This is how he kept Mom in line.”
On the desk was a folder.
MARITAL ASSET AND VOTING CONSENT.
Mitchell Aeronautics.
My thirty-one-percent voting interest.
Three months earlier, after my mother’s estate finally settled, those shares had transferred fully into the family structure benefiting me.
They were worth tens of millions on paper.
They were not a checking account.
They were not freely transferable.
And they did not belong to David simply because we had exchanged vows yesterday.
“We already discussed this.”
“You refused before.”
“I’m refusing now.”
“You embarrassed my father.”
“Your father has nothing to do with my shares.”
David’s face changed.
He raised the bat.
I had left active Marine service years earlier because I wanted peace.
David knew I had served.
He believed I had worked administrative logistics.
He did not know that for four years I had instructed Marines in defensive tactics and close-combat fundamentals.
I never lied.
He simply never asked questions that weren’t about himself.
When his shoulder shifted, I recognized the swing before it began.
I moved.
The bat cut through empty air.
Its length became a disadvantage once I closed distance.
Seconds later it hit the carpet and rolled beneath the bed.
David stared at his empty hands.
“What the hell?”
I backed toward the door.
“You get one chance to stay away from me.”
His fear became fury.
“You lied about who you were.”
“So did you.”
Three hard knocks hit the cabin door.
David suddenly smiled.
That smile frightened me more than his rage.
Because he had been expecting someone.
I opened the door only far enough to look outside.
Richard Davis stood there.
My father-in-law.
Behind him was David’s older brother, Mark.
I stared.
“You’re on our honeymoon?”
Richard looked past me.
Saw the bat beneath the bed.
Then looked at David.
“You lost control already?”
Not:
Why is there a weapon?
Not:
Is Sarah hurt?
Control.
That one word told me the truth.
May you like
The honeymoon had never been private.
And David had never intended to convince me alone.
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